Rap Genius is a bit different. The site heavily annotates rap lyrics, which made some people (including me) curious about whether they'd try to fight the music publishers in court. It would have been interesting from a copyright geek perspective to see if what Rap Genius does qualifies as fair use, but now we likely won't.

Kafka points out that Rap Genius still has to make licensing deals with the other publishers, but it seems likely they will.

UPDATE, 1:30PM Well, this is strange. We posted this story on Twitter and some folks made mild jokes about whether Rap Genius surviving was necessarily a good thing.

Yikes! Not to speak for anyone who follows us on Twitter, but I really am looking forward to the new Girls season, and curious about how they're going to deal with the fact that the actor who plays Charlie abruptly left the show.

UPDATE, 2:38PM. OK! All's forgiven.

@bklynhawk@tldr I regret it now I misunderstood their tweet, got emotional - headed to gym now I need it!

Comments [3]

rap genius caught a ton of heat in certain rap internet circles because a) "deciphering" slang in the manner their crowd does often comes off as lowkey racist, b) the "art is interpretive, no single meaning" argument (i.e. lit 101 stuff) and c) elitist rap listeners like to think the time and effort they put into understanding these artists' stories is worth something, and RG amounts to a shortcut for the uninitiated.

fwiw im inclined to agree with the hive mind on this, notwithstanding that last argument being annoying.